This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.
I am so fucking psyched for this season. (Edit 10/15: Hey, if you haven’t seen Higurashi yet, ignore the Higurashi part of this post. You want to watch the old version first.)
The Rankings – Part 1/4
No OVAs/Movies/Specials included cuz that’s too much effort. Oh, and most of the ONAs are the typical Chinese no-effort garbage, so I’ll be passing on them too.
Really makes you think.
In this episode:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2020) – Great
Assault Lily: Bouquet – Okay
Tonikaku Kawaii – Great
Senyoku no Sigrdrifa – Okay-
Hanyou no Yashahime: Sengoku Otogizoushi – Okay+
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear – Meh
100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru – Bad
Majo no Tabitabi – Good
Jujutsu Kaisen (TV) – Good
Haikyuu!!: To the Top 2nd Season – Okay+
I included sequels/reboots in this one because y’all ask for them every time and you deserve a bit of fanservice. Not saying I did it just for you, but I started this preview post a month ahead of time, so I was able to catch up on most of them.
My taste is superior. Figured you deserve a lick. <3
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2020) – Great
(When the Cicadas Cry) / (When They Cry) / (Casey and Friends: Rebooted)
tl;dr: When Casey moves to a town in the Japanese hinterlands, he finds himself in a school surrounded by nothing but pretty girls! Which cutie-chan will take his heart? Would it be a spoiler if I said, “all of them”?
Spoiler for
Visual Novel: Steam / MangaGamer (first ep is free on both platforms; currently the question & answer arcs are translated, TBD on all the side stories)
Manga: I mean, it exists… but the VN’s right there, fam.
Director:Keiichirou Kawaguchi (Galko-chan, SKET Dance, and a whole bunch of garbage)
Animation Production: Passione (Ishuzoku Reviewers, Rokka no Yuusha, Citrus)
Every fall when I hear those beautiful bugs outside my window, it reminds me how much I fucking love this fucked-up series.
When the Cicadas Cry is a masterwork media franchise anchored by arcs that don’t make sense at first (the question arcs) that are then proceeded by those that will help you make sense of the universe (the answer arcs). But this ain’t a Sherlock story; even to this date everything ain’t fully solved.
For example, the curious case of why Shion is so best girl
This is a supernatural mystery that’s steeped in sexy elements of horror and paranoia. If that’s not your scene, then there are enough other options this season to sate you. But if the concept interests you, and you’ve never gotten into Higurashi, give this one till the first arc ends before deciding whether to continue or not. Shouldn’t be more than a 4-episode commitment.
For those of us who are already familiar with the universe, the main question here will be how good of an adaptation we’re looking at. I think Passione as a studio is criminally underrated, however the staff attached to the series don’t exactly inspire confidence. But goreweebs, we gotta be honest with ourselves, Higurashi’s original anime adaptation wasn’t really good. The series could just be cursed.
And I’m not necessarily against that.
It’s owed a shot, at least. Fanboys gotta have faith.
Assault Lily: Bouquet – Okay
tl;dr: Yet again, angsty teenage lesbians are humanity’s last line of defense against The Great Other.
I looked up the creator’s Twitter and all I could find was ramen, wrestling, and ball-jointed dolls. This is a good thing.
Going off the website, we’re getting a 30+ person cast. Normally that means you could expect a bunch of dead girls, but seeing as all of them have $100 figurines for sale, I’m thinking this will be a rather bloodless affair. Must be all pre-teens.
Product list:
Combining smooth animation with clit-sucking is enough to inspire a one-episode trial, but I’m not here for a Frame Arms Girl rip-off.
Let’s just hope this isn’t the first knell of Shaft’s funeral bell.
Tonikaku Kawaii – Great
(Generally Cute) / (Fly Me to the Moon)
tl;dr: Imagine a romcom without any harem bullshit and where the two main characters are married and have a happy, committed relationship.
Oh god, don’t pull the trigger just yet, friend; that shit’s fictional – no one actually lives like that. But, like, imagine if it could be real. Better than liquor, huh? Almost, maybe?
Director:Hiroshi Ikehata (FLCL Progressive, Akiba’s Trip, Sore ga Seiyuu!)
Animation Production: Seven Arcs (Dog Days, Arte, Sekirei)
I love me a good romcom, so much so that I stopped reading the manga after the first chapter because I didn’t wanna spoil any of the magic of the anime for myself.
Luckily(?) no one does fanart of this shit, so finding pix for the post kept me pure.
Hoping this’ll be the first thing to make me smile in years.
Senyoku no Sigrdrifa – Okay-
(Warlords of Sigrdrifa)
tl;dr: You know that dude who made Re:Zero? Yeah, well he’s got a fetish for fighter planes, and you’re about to find out that Re:Zero succeeded entirely in spite of him.
Director:Yuu Nobuta (A Good Librarian, High School Fleet) & Hisashi Ishii (A bunch of the Ame-Iro series)
Animation Production: EMT Squared (Kuma Miko, Renai Boukun, Assassins Pride); tl;dr: they’re a budget studio
Isekai is good when it gives the characters an excuse to kill shit. Slice-of-life is not an element I have any interest in joining that mix.
After watching the pre-air of the first episode, I’m confident in saying I’ll never watch another ep. People who are inherently boring may have a different take.
100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru – Bad
(I’m standing on 1,000,000 lives.)
tl;dr: High school isekai harem. MC-kun levels up quicker than everyone else, but in exchange for this power he also gets the most useful skills.
Animation Production: Maho Film (Just this and UchiMusume)
Series seemed tolerable, if a bit generic. Then I got to this scene where MC-kun and his gaggle of gals encounter a bunch of dudes with mad murder-rape energy:
Dropped before it even started.
Oh, and don’t let the drama in the trailer confuse you; everyone literally has respawn timers. There are no stakes here. I mean, other than the psychological impact of –getting fucking raped-.
Majo no Tabitabi – Good
(The Journey of Elaina…? Didn’t realize “Majo” translated to “Elaina” but okay.)
Animation Production: C2C (WorldEnd, Hitoribocchi, Oneechan ga Kita)
Kino’s Journey without the politics and with only 10% of the depression is still like a 7. And Flying Witch is an 8. So we’re looking at 7.5 here, roughly?
Assuming manga order is what we’re getting, if you like episode 2, I will forever consider us friends.
~The Country of Flowers~
Jujutsu Kaisen (TV) – Good
(Sorc Wars)
tl;dr: What if shounen didn’t suck?
Note that episode 1 had a pre-air, but the quality of the subs available is abysmal. The kid responsible for the only release currently available took a French translation, tried to translate it into English, and then filled in the gaps with a scanlation.
It sucks.
No, “hontou” doesn’t mean “incorrectly formatted ellipsis”
Spoiler for
Manga: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/titles/100034 (Mangadex directed me here cuz they’re sellout cowards. I don’t recommend reading the manga, cuz it sucks, but the link is here if you need it.)
Director:Seong-Hu Park (Garo, The God of High School)
Animation Production: MAPPA (Zankyou no Terror, Kakegurui, Dororo)
From episode 1, the adaptation looks faithful to the manga, yet significantly better than it. And by that, I mean there’s way more blood and titty jiggling.
Animation Production: Production I.G (They were never good.)
Chihayafuru is the only good sports anime, yet Japan still insists on turning out garbage like this.
Every Haikyuu plot: “Oh no, we’re up against <good team>. But a-ha, we have the ability to (only ever) improve our gameplay during matches against strong opponents! Plot: advance!”
Granted, I’ve never given a Haikyuu release less than a 7/10, but that’s not so much an indicator of how good it is than how much I like Hinata going full tryhard mode and somehow coming out ahead no matter how the facts indicate the Japanese are a non-factor in the sport.
tl;dr
Shows worth watching as they air:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2020)
Majo no Tabitabi
Jujutsu Kaisen (TV)
Shows worth marathoning after they’re done:
Tonikaku Kawaii
Garbage trash not worthy of a moment’s consideration:
Assault Lily: Bouquet
Senyoku no Sigrdrifa
Hanyou no Yashahime: Sengoku Otogizoush
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear
100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru
Haikyuu!!: To the Top 2nd Season
Next up: Part 2/4 (aiming for a Thursday post, but I might be late and throw it out on Friday… or Saturday, if I really fuck things up like usual)
10 thoughts on “Fall 2020 Anime Preview: Part 1 – Hope on the Horizon”
Ohh more content. I feel blessed.
Well CR ripper horriblesubs just died this evening. So all the people who don’t subscribe to CR, Funmation, and amazon will just have to find something else to do.
I legit thought you an hero’d or something, fam. I dropped by for the first time in a year or so, and here we go: alive, kicking, and still boasting that absolutely garbage taste as in days of yore.
Totes agree on Tonikaku Kawaii, but if your opinion on Higurashi still stands after the first episode you gotta be loco. I’ll enjoy every single bit of it for /a/ threads, but it will end up sucking a fatter one than Deen’s take on it did.
(Also, if I do kill myself or die, I have a gentleman’s agreement with Calyrica to make a post about it and keep things up for a bit, in exchange for a massive amount of my weebswag. So if I leave myself hanging at least I won’t leave y’all hanging.)
The only show I really care about (that is a new IP for anime) is cute witch girl. I hope the series doesn’t disappoint you dad, but I’ll probably ride the series just to see a cute white haired witch girl do whatever the fuck she’s going to do and drink myself into a soothing brain numb coma. And then laugh at Higurashi gore scenes.
I’m sorry I’m a disappointment dad, you taught me this.
I mean, I read the manga (as I do try to do for most of these), so I know what’s coming for the first 3 eps. Unless they just fuck it up beyond all recognition, or shit goes sideways later on, there’s no way I’ll give it less than an 8 in the end.
It is less Flying Witch than Kino’s Journey, by the by.
Dark_Sage, I’m not convinced that Nagatsuki Tappei has a fetish for fighter planes. It was Aniplex that pitched to Tappei to come up with something that would involve a lot of time spent in the sky, and I guess this is what he came up on short notice, or at least I hope it was short notice since Tappei can clearly come up with a better idea than this.
Ohh more content. I feel blessed.
Well CR ripper horriblesubs just died this evening. So all the people who don’t subscribe to CR, Funmation, and amazon will just have to find something else to do.
Looks like there are alternatives making releases already so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Cool stuff, but don’t ever say y’all again
np y’all
I legit thought you an hero’d or something, fam. I dropped by for the first time in a year or so, and here we go: alive, kicking, and still boasting that absolutely garbage taste as in days of yore.
Totes agree on Tonikaku Kawaii, but if your opinion on Higurashi still stands after the first episode you gotta be loco. I’ll enjoy every single bit of it for /a/ threads, but it will end up sucking a fatter one than Deen’s take on it did.
I just want yandere to be good again fuck
(Also, if I do kill myself or die, I have a gentleman’s agreement with Calyrica to make a post about it and keep things up for a bit, in exchange for a massive amount of my weebswag. So if I leave myself hanging at least I won’t leave y’all hanging.)
The only show I really care about (that is a new IP for anime) is cute witch girl. I hope the series doesn’t disappoint you dad, but I’ll probably ride the series just to see a cute white haired witch girl do whatever the fuck she’s going to do and drink myself into a soothing brain numb coma. And then laugh at Higurashi gore scenes.
I’m sorry I’m a disappointment dad, you taught me this.
I mean, I read the manga (as I do try to do for most of these), so I know what’s coming for the first 3 eps. Unless they just fuck it up beyond all recognition, or shit goes sideways later on, there’s no way I’ll give it less than an 8 in the end.
It is less Flying Witch than Kino’s Journey, by the by.
Dark_Sage, I’m not convinced that Nagatsuki Tappei has a fetish for fighter planes. It was Aniplex that pitched to Tappei to come up with something that would involve a lot of time spent in the sky, and I guess this is what he came up on short notice, or at least I hope it was short notice since Tappei can clearly come up with a better idea than this.
Nice to see someone else agree that Chihayafuru is the best sports anime.